10th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Romans 4:18-25
Matthew 9:9-13
"What I want is mercy,
not sacrifice.”
After we had spent the Lenten and Easter seasons, and of course the series of important feasts and solemnities, our liturgical calendar brings us back today to this tenth Sunday in the ordinary time. And as we start this series of ordinary Sundays, we are invited to meditate on today’s episode on the call of Matthew.
1. The gospel directs us immediately to the person of Matthew. Matthew is unlike the rest of the twelve. While most of the twelve are poor fishermen, Matthew is a rich public official. While most of the twelve are more patriotic, Matthew poses himself a traitor to his fellow Jews by serving the Romans as tax collector. As customary, tax collectors used to meet the tax requirements by extortion. Understandably, they enriched themselves by cheating their countrymen. And Matthew was just one of them. Moreover, tax collectors were thought to care so less about the injunctions of the Law and thus were regarded as public sinners. And Matthew was just that man sitting at the fax collector’s booth when Jesus passed by and spotted on him.
But to everyone's surprise, Jesus now makes his warm invitation
to Matthew: "Follow me!" And not only that. He goes as far as
visiting Matthew's house and dining with Matthew's circle. With what Jesus does,
he seems to break and defy the traditional standards of apostolic recruitment.
He seems to forget about requiring the poor Matthew a "certificate of good
moral standing" or even entertaining or at least listening to the
community's recommendation. But Jesus must have his best reason for it. And
this we must discover, too. Certainly, this must be the core message of today's
gospel episode: "What I need is mercy and not sacrifice.”
2. Actually, the gospel is telling us that all the people Jesus confronts today are sinners. But a big difference divides these sinners into two groups. For one group consists of the condemned sinners while the other group consists condemning sinners. Matthew belongs to the group of condemned sinners. The cursing eyes of society have constantly isolated and discriminated him and his circle. Like lepers and prostitutes, tax collectors to whom Matthew belongs have no room in any moral corner of Jewish life. And no matter how much they perhaps try to better their lives, they cannot just escape from such social and religious castrations. No matter what they do, culture has already condemned them as sinners.
But if such has become the tragic situation of these condemned sinners, it is all because there are people who have constantly reinforced upon Jewish society that these poor tax collectors, along with lepers and prostitutes are such irremediable and hopeless sinners. These people are the scribes and Pharisees. They are somewhat the lucky guys who, who because of their knowledge of the Law, have won the favors and blessings of Jewish society as the guardians of morality. But becoming victims of their own pride, they are for sure no better than those people whom they used to condemn. We can better describe them as the condemning sinners.
As we see, therefore, the dialectics of the gospel's message swings at these two kinds of sinners. For it is precisely because of their respective status that each begets inner dispositions and outer responses quite differently from each other. On the one hand, convinced of their own righteousness, the Pharisees find themselves so comfortable and uncompromising to make sweeping condemnations upon the less fortunate ones like the tax-collectors. On the other hand, however, we find the condemned ones groping and struggling so much to find their moral identity and worth.
Acknowledging perhaps how sinful he has become before heaven and earth, Matthew grabs this very rare opportunity towards goodness. Without any second thought, he rises from his sit and takes the path of his newly found master. To him, Jesus’ warm calling is an invitation of and for life. And he is right. Once he rises, he rises for good. And once he leaves behind his old life, he leaves it behind never to return to it again.
3. Jesus knows so well their true dispositions and he justly gives the redeeming lesson: "What 1 need is mercy and not sacrifice.” Firstly, Jesus addresses his response directly to the complaint of the Pharisees: "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors sinners”? Perhaps, there is not any other kind of people whom Jesus abhors so much than the Pharisees. And there is one best possible answer why: the Pharisees are always there as condemning sinners. For many times in the past, Jesus had been so uncomfortable with these people. And now, he gets another similar bad experience. Knowledge and even strict observance of the Law are not an assurance of true piety and religiosity; much less can they become a license to condemn others.
This is the fault of the Pharisees. Jesus, then, stands to correct them once more. True religion comes from the abundance of goodness in the heart. This abundance starts, builds and flourishes from the virtue of love and mercy. It is mercy that God so desires from man. For it is mercy and mercy alone that can temper God's most righteous anger against a sinful man. Thus, he who knows not how to show mercy can neither obtain mercy. Sacrifices, burnt offerings, and even good works count for nothing when such good works are made not out of mercy and love (cf 1Cor 13).
"What I need is mercy and not sacrifices.” These words are also meant, secondly, for the condemned sinners, particularly Matthew. In fact, Jesus does and shows mercy upon him even as he says it. Again, we see how Jesus expresses his powerful way of catechesis. He accompanies with a concrete act what he demonstrates by his words. Here, Jesus extends mercy to Matthew because Matthew needs it most. It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. Jesus' mercy upon this condemned tax collector starts by his warm invitation: “Follow me,” and extends even as far as dining at the sinner's own table. Of course, we have all the good reasons to suppose that Matthew's dinner is his humble way of showing his sincere gratitude to Jesus. Perhaps, this is the first time Matthew ever experiences from his heart the real meaning of God's saving grace. It may have come in a most unexpected way, but certainly, it comes at a time when he needs it most.
The call and response of Matthew is an undying
example of how mercy can soften a hardened heart, of how it can create a decisive
turning point in life. Indeed, Matthew is always a reminder that amidst a
sinful world, there are still a lot of people like him who, when mercy is shown
unto them, are willing to rise up and respond to the call: “Come, follow me!"